Crash Course actor Pranay Pachauri says new show is ‘more layered’ than Kota Factory, calls comparisons unfair

Actor Pranay Pachauri’s latest release Crash Course featured him as Ashutosh Kumar– a Physics teacher who is also the crush of several students due to his charming looks. The series, which also starred Annu Kapoor, aired on Prime Video on August 5 and told the story of eight engineering aspirants in Kota. Pranay, who took inspiration from professors and teachers in his personal life to portray Ashutosh, said the series reminded him of his own time in coaching centres as he prepared to become a Chartered Accountant. Also Read| Annu Kapoor says he took up projects he didn’t like for money

Crash Course stars Annu Kapoor as a ruthless businessman who runs an institute and wants his students to get the top ranks in entrance exams so he can gain complete control of the education business in Kota. In a recent conversation with Hindustan Times, Pranay said there is something wrong with the education system in India and more series like Crash Course are needed to highlight it.

Recalling the time he was preparing to become CA before he got an offer to star in his debut film Time Out (2015), Pranay said, “I was preparing for CA, because I come from a corporate background and both my parents were in the corporate field. So obviously their life view is very different. CA was a very difficult subject because its entrance exams do not have a structured set. When I was reading the script, it did remind me of the days when I used to study for CA and I used to have immense pressure on me. When you are forced to do things while you are studying and they take the fun out of it, it gets very dark and hard. Especially when you are a young kid, you do not even make sense of the world. I used to feel very pressurised. I did not know what to do and I would feel lost as a kid.”

He added about coaching centres, “200 to 300 students were rushed in a class which has the capacity of 50 people. It used to be a very competitive environment and toxic at the same time. I used to feel I don’t know what I am doing in life. And when I chose the script (Crash Course), I was like I am glad that Amazon is investing in a script like this because such stories need to be told. There was Taare Zameen Par, then 3 Idiots, but it’s important that such stories are repeated every few years so that audience normalises and understands that there is something wrong with our education system and that’s not how we should deal with it.”

Crash Course, written by Manish Hariprasad and Raina Roy, is directed by Vijay Mourya in his directorial debut. Pranay also opened up about starring in the series alongside Annu Kapoor, though they do not share a seen together. He said, “I don’t have any scene with him even though he is trying to poach me (in the plot). I met him off-set, and it was great. I have been watching him since my childhood, so it was just surreal to be in a series with him, to see him perform, and to talk to him. I am just very grateful that I got to work with such experienced people.”

The actor also reacted to the constant comparisons of Crash Course to Kota Factory, which also followed the fiercely competitive lives of students in Kota, and called them ‘unfair.’ He said, “The comparisons are a little unfair. Kota Factory deals with a similar subject but has a very different approach to it. We in Crash Course are showing a much more layered version of Kota where teachers, professors, and the owners of the institutes are involved. It’s basically how coaching has become a business, how pressurising students have become a business. We are delving into that more and into the lives of these eight kids who have their own journeys after joining Kota. There shouldn’t be any comparisons at all because these are very different shows, even though we are touching upon a similar topic. People start forming these opinions even before watching it, that’s unfair.”

Pranay is also known for his appearance in the web series Alisha (2015) opposite Lianne Texeira, and in season 2 of The Trip (2018) opposite Amyra Dastur, which were streamed on YouTube. Alisha released much before Netflix came to India in 2016 and OTT started becoming immensely popular during coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The actor dubbed the OTT platform a ‘blessing’ for those in the entertainment industry.

Pranay will be next seen in Disney+ Hotstar’s revenge-based thriller Karamyuddh alongside Paoli Dam and Ashutosh Rana. He also has an independent festival film with Vipul Amrutlal Shah and a project with Excel Entertainment in the pipeline.